Identification of materials suitable for grafts can be difficult, because such materials must possess disparate properties. For example, vascular graft materials should exhibit mechanical stability under continuous stress, should have compliance similar to that of the host tissue, and should be nonthromogenic. In some applications, graft materials may also provide for endothelialization and have sufficient porosity to allow for capillarization. Other preferred properties of graft materials include being non-allergenic and non-carcinogenic. While all of these properties may be specifically designed into a material, it is also desirable for the material to be inexpensive to fabricate.
Portions of the human vasculature may be replaced or treated with synthetic vascular grafts. One typical area of application includes the replacement or treatment of blood vessels with vascular grafts. Synthetic vascular grafts may have wide variety of configurations and may be formed from a wide variety of materials. Conventional vascular graft implants include those which are formed from a biologically compatible material which retains an open lumen to permit blood to flow through the synthetic graft after implant. Polymeric structures typically used for vascular graft and stent procedures may include woven and non-woven textiles and other porous polymer sheets.
Graft materials comprising polymeric sheet comprising holes (porous polymeric sheet) and extracellular matrix material (ECM) disposed in the holes of the polymeric sheet, medical prostheses that include such graft materials, and methods of making and using them were previously described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/093,759, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.